A simple started activity - students learn the basics of Primary and Secondary sources by matching some images to the definition. This was made for low ability, SEN students, so uses visual and simple explanations. It could make a quick fire activity for more able students. Students can draw lines to connect or cut out and paste in their exercise books. As an extension, they can think of other examples. This uses a couple images of Queen Victoria for example purposes.

An activity pack created for our local theatre group for their upcoming production of The Elephant Man. This education resource pack has several activities and some worksheets based on the play (and Joseph Merrick’s story) as well as this particular production’s chosen approach.

This makes a good starter activity for low-mid ability but could be a quick recap even for higher ability in KS3. It was originally made for special needs as a starting point for a lesson on punctuation and they worked through it well independently and enjoyed doing the word search. There are two sheets that shouldn’t take too long to do - enjoy!

Three activities on witch hunting that can easily be extended or developed. A short cloze exercise, a handwriting task (that also allows for students to select pertinent information), and two sources that can be explored - Matthew Hopkins' book and a Salem lithograph produced late in 1892. Notes included.

This is an end of unit test on the Stuarts. It could be used as an assessment or as a research task - with students trying to find the answers, perhaps on PCs. They’d done the Tudors before and then covered the Stuarts by looking at: Monarchs Catholicism and Protestantism Puritans The Witch Frenzy Source analysis The English Civil War Oliver Cromwell Plague Great Fire of London The assessment is differentiated THREE times. The three sets of questions all include some source questions, some option questions, and some open/closed questions. The questions for each set demonstrate the skills needed for Level 3, 4 and 5 in the History NC. If students are lower ability, I start them with the first sheet ‘Aiming for Level 3’ - if they complete this they can move onto ‘Aiming for Level 4’. If they are more able they can start with the Level 4 sheet and then do 5, or start with the Level 5. If they finish Level 5 (which has more thought provoking questions so does take longer, I let them go back to the Levels 3 and 4 sheets to recap. Sometimes it works to start all on Level 3 and see how far they can go (builds confidence when they can see they are literally progressing). Please feel free to edit or move questions based on what you have covered, but there’s a fairly good mix in here.

Students read the information (sourced from BBC) and answer the questions. Some of the questions involve selecting information from the source. Some of the questions require students to apply their knowledge and consider primary sources. Marked out of 20. Allow 40minutes - 1hr to emanate the exam experience.

I made this for an SEN group. It is effectively the same task differentiated 4 times. Two are ‘access’ or slightly easier, and two versions are slightly more ‘challenging’. This worked well where I had a range of abilities within one group so could give them all the same task and learning aim but a different version of the sheet to stretch/support as needed. Works well as a starter or recap and would be good for cover lessons as well as an easy go to task. To extend they could research more about the Kings and Queens, work out how long they were on the throne for and find out about Lady Jane Grey and why her ‘reign’ was so short.

A pack of three revision sheets for Inter-War years topics: Anschluss Appeasement Invasion of Poland (Nazi-Soviet Pact) Each sheet has an overview and then some revision/exam style questions - including sources to analyse I made these for my SEN group as they like a clear focused revision task. Each one has taken up a lesson as we’ve read the info, discussed the topic, watched some relevant clips on youtube, answered the questions and checked them together. They would make good homework sheets or extensions as needed. I hope they help and good luck for the exams!

This is a step-by-step explanation of how to use apostrophes. I work through it with them putting more examples on the white board and explaining as we go. My Autistic students found that knowing the historical reason for why possessive apostrophes are used helped them see where to put them. Others found the idea of just adding 's worked best for them. It helps if they have a good understanding of plurals generally first. We used this with year 8 all the way through to Sixth Form. Some of our staff even found it useful (we had a few ‘oooh oh I see’ moments!) Worked well with ours for revising for GCSE exams. Made a good starter for revision but I often use for a whole lesson with lots of examples and practising as a group.

This can be used for just a class or a whole school! Hide the images of famous actors who have played a Shakespearean character around the school. There are 3 different quizzes that can be used to help students engage with the actors and the plays, from a simple 'Where is each picture hidden?' location quiz to a more thought-provoking quiz on well-known films the actors have been in to engage student interest! Great for a competition between groups!

I made this for a SEN sixth form group struggling with poetry. It could be easily adapted and isn’t exactly ‘simple’. They had the chance to research and try writing about the poem (with close textual analysis) as well as completing some activities on structure and form. The activities are included in the powerpoint. Hopefully it will be a good starting point for your own session - enjoy :)

Aimed at KS3 to help them develop annotation skills. The source is differentiated so students can complete annotation labels, write them themselves or cut and paste the labels around the source. There is an additional cloze exercise to be completed (or copied out) to help students learn to make notes and then write up their ideas. Whilst made for SEN (Autism/Dyslexia), this would work well as a starter for other ability levels.

This is part of a series of lessons I made but one that stands well alone as either a full unit on India, a cover lesson or a dip-n-dive activity. Originally made for SEN students, it is quite straightforward with differentiated sheets and, I’ve found, easily adaptable to most levels. The LO is Level 3 skills, but again easily stretched for 4-5 if needed (and by using harder version of Geographical Features sheet. Activities include: A facts cloze task Locating country/capital Geographical features (differentiated) - chance to use Atlas/Google Maps Word Search Thank you for looking and I hope it works for you :)

A timeline activity - easily adapted. Suggestions on the sheet for staff to use. Made for a good lesson! I cut them into date with descriptor and students simply put them into order. Differentiated by splitting the dates from the descriptors. They added extra notes on other events and details on all (plenty of space if stuck on A3 sheets). This made a good start point for the Race Relations topics but also a revision task. Hope it helps :)

A lesson (or easily a week’s worth) on National Park conflict issues. This is based around a ‘case study’ looking at a map of a local farming area (which I made-up) to get students to consider the problems created by proposed changes in UK National Parks. Includes maps, questioning tasks, letter writing cloze exercise, word search etc. All of the worksheets are included in the powerpoint and I’ve added some notes about how I used this. Additional ones could easily be made as needed by editing slides. Initially made for an interview lesson and then adapted for teaching (once I got the post - yay!) It was made for low ability SEN students in year 9 but I think could be easily adapted (and I’ve used it with year 7 since as well so quite flexible). I found it took 2-3 lessons with mine to do it nicely. Thanks for looking :)

A powerpoint with 5 creative/descriptive writing starter activities that can each lead into a lesson of their own or be used as standalone activities. Looking primarily at vocabulary choices. Developed for GCSE, but applicable at KS3 too.

A three tiered ppt. with resources/links included to help students develop their ability to read quickly and search resources for answers swiftly. The theme is PLASTIC FREE so serves as a useful resource for teaching about sustainability alongside a key functional skill. 3 lessons if they do a level a lesson and easy to bulk out if needed by spending more time on resources or exploring similar ones etc.

Some worksheets and activities to help distinguish between Catholics and Protestants following the reformation. It would work for KS3 or GCSE (Elizabethan's unit). There is a cloze exercise, a venn diagram activity, a quiz, a short comprehension task and a word search. This section focuses on the changes at the start of Queen Elizabeth's reign but references the reformation. Some of the activities are differentiated to account for SEN students or those who need challenging. Basic teacher notes included. Everything is in one powerpoint for ease and can be easily added to and adapted. Thanks :)

A short scheme of work on Indonesia. Targeted at low ability (SEN) year 7 but easily adapted (with some differentiation worksheet options included and suggestions offered). It could work well for primary students as well as KS3. This covered about 10 lessons and was easily extended by using additional tasks - again, some suggested. The unit explores the basic physical geography of Indonesia and looks at tectonic plates leading to a bit of research on the 2004 tsunami. The created some lovely work from this that resulted in a colourful display. The students also read Running Wild alongside completing this task.

A short (and easily adaptable) scheme of Alfred Noyes’ The Highwayman. Featuring lessons on plot, context, technique, structure and writing a response. The unit has some differentiated lessons and resources, as well as suggestions for additional activities and tasks. Developed for mid-ability year 9 but taught at year 7 through to year 10 for different abilities.